Passengers at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, were plunged into darkness on Friday night due to a power outage, sparking outrage among travellers and aviation stakeholders.
A trending video on social media depicted the terminal shrouded in darkness, with passengers resorting to using their mobile phones to light up the area. This incident is not the first of its kind at Nigeria’s busiest airport.
According to reports, a similar power outage occurred on April 1, 2022, disrupting flight operations and leaving hundreds of passengers stranded. The outage was attributed to heavy rainfall that persisted from late Friday into the early hours of Saturday.
This is not an isolated incident, as a similar outage was experienced in November 2018, with the then Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Saleh Dunoma, attributing the frequent outages to ongoing construction works at the airport.
The recurring power outages have sparked outcry among passengers and aviation stakeholders, highlighting the need for urgent measures to address the infrastructure challenges at Nigeria’s primary port of entry.
Confirming the incident, FAAN, in a statement posted on its X (formerly Twitter) handle, explained that the outage lasted no more than three minutes.
“We experienced a 2-3 minute outage at Murtala Muhammed International Airport yesterday, Feb 2nd, 2024, while switching over to our backup power supply after losing power from the Grid.
“The electrical team has identified the challenges with the automatic switch over and is working judiciously to restore this immediately. We have put a plan in place leveraging the alternative sources of power to ensure we do not have a recurrence.”
